GPS

For years, circling approaches in the United States have been more difficult to execute while providing less safety margin, relative to those in most of the rest of the world. After years of deliberation, the FAA is finally bringing some needed changes to the protection afforded to circling aircraft.

FreeFlight Systems of Texas has landed a $7 million deal with the FAA to equip up to 600 Alaskan aircraft with automatic dependent surveillance-broadcast (ADS-B) equipment, a reward for those who tested the system now at the heart of NextGen.

General aviation aircraft owners would spend an aggregate $500 million on dated technology under a revived Federal Communications Commission proposal to eliminate emergency locator transmitters that operate on 121.5 MHz, said five U.S. senators.

AOPA eNewsletter and Social Media Editor Benét J. Wilson last did a review of five random apps in November 2012. This week, she decided to use the randomizer again and pick another five apps across all categories and recommended by AOPA members.

Charlie Becker, AOPA’s director of corporate partnerships and products—and a VFR pilot—was facing a dilemma: He had an iPad 2, but he wasn’t really using it for aviation. Plus, prices were dropping on Samsung Galaxy Tabs and Apple finally released the iPad mini.

Photography by Mike Fizer No doubt about it, Piper’s Meridian has found its niche in the step-up market. Ever since the preliminary design phase in 1997, the company’s goal was to provide an easy-to-fly machine that would make for simple transitions for owner pilots coming from piston singles.

This iPad screen shot shows Xavion’s desired flight path to the nearest runway. The airplane is flying at 99 KIAS, descending 1,200 fpm, and slightly low.Those of us who fly single-engine, single-pilot IFR may not like to dwell on these scenarios, but what are our odds of gliding to a safe landing at an airport if we lose the engine in instrument meteorological conditions? And how well prepared are we to deal with a total electrical failure in the clouds, or at night? Xavion is an iPad app that provides answers to the questions pilots constantly ask themselves in flight: What would I do right now if the engine quit? Or if the instrument panel suddenly went dark? Designed by Austin Meyer, founder of the wildly successful X-Plane flight simulation software, Xavion uses the iPad’s internal sensors (or a Levil Technologies attitude heading reference system) to show pilots how to glide to a runway if the engine quits.

Pilots on IFR flight plans will be able to plan for a GPS-based instrument approach at either the destination or the alternate—but not both—under a policy change that drops the prohibition on choosing an alternate based on a GPS approach. AOPA has long advocated for measures to expand IFR navigation options for general aviation, and welcomed the announcement as timely when satellite-based procedures now outnumber by 30 percent those using ground-based navaids.

Dogfight: Flight bags Tough, simple, proven By Dave Hirschman The modern flight bag is an over-thought, over-stuffed, and over-priced parody of itself. Trying to use one is like entering a house of mirrors: a semi-comedic and confusing exercise in frustration in which the simple items we look for in flight—batteries, a pack of gum, a note pad—are sure to be hidden in some obscure pocket within a pocket.

Datalink Roundup Weather to Go What's it like in there? --> BY AOPA PILOT STAFF WRITERS (From AOPA Pilot, March 2004.) You're headed from Jackson, Mississippi, to Brownsville, Texas, and here's how your day is going: Alarm didn't go off; running late; spilled coffee driving to the airport while on the cell phone getting a briefing from flight service (yeah, you shouldn't drink, drive, and talk on the phone all at once, but these are life's pressures; at least there's no shaving or makeup involved). Thank goodness the weather's supposed to be good, right? Now, en route, you're feeling like maybe you drank too much of that coffee; it's bumpy, there's a big, fat headwind, and what's this? ATC talking at 20 knots gusting to 30: "Attention all aircraft: Convective Sigmet 11C valid until 2055 Zulu, an area from 50 west-southwest of Lufkin to 120 south-southwest Lake Charles to 100 southeast of Palacios to...." Wait a minute, where's Palacios? What's next? Did he say Brownsville? Was that embedded thunderstorms with tops to Flight Level 450? Oh man, you missed half of it.

AOPA is reminding pilots concerned about the Federal Communications Commission’s plan to prohibit the certification, manufacture, importation, sale, or use of 121.5 MHz emergency locator transmitters (ELTs) to submit their comments to the FCC by April 1. AOPA strongly opposes the proposal, which in effect would force pilots to switch to 406 MHz ELTs, thereby hindering, rather than improving, aviation safety.